Gregory D. Squires

Gregory D. Squires is a professor of sociology and public policy at George Washington University. He is co-editor, with Chester Hartman, of There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina.

(Kim Brent/The Beaumont Enterprise via AP) Evacuees make their way to Max Bowl, which was converted to a shelter for those displaced by Harvey, in Port Arthur, Texas, on August 30, 2017. I t is long past time to stop calling events like Hurricanes Sandy, Katrina, and now Harvey and Irma, natural disasters. There is no such thing. These may be natural events. But many of the costs of recovery—and who pays those costs—are the results of decisions people make. There is nothing natural about the catastrophic consequences of these choices. Planning (or the lack thereof), underfunding the nation’s infrastructure, and a wide range of public policies and private practices that concentrate low-income and non-white families in vulnerable communities are just a few of the “unnatural” factors that have shaped the events unfolding in Houston now. Twelve years ago, Americans saw those same unnatural factors on display in New Orleans and southern Louisiana. That Houston has experienced its third “...